Life under communism is cruel and inhumane. Commit the smallest political infraction, and the secret police will arrest you. The only ray of hope is the West, but getting out from communism is difficult. Communist countries have a “Berlin Wall” around them. It is a crime to escape by crossing the border illegally, and anyone caught is beaten and imprisoned, sometimes even shot. I was eighteen, and I was living in hell. However, I would rather have died than keep living as a communist slave. This is my story of what happened and how I reached freedom.

For Viet Nguyen, the only thing worse than rules are the people who enforce them. This may not be the best attitude to have in a society that punishes dissent with death. A rebellious teenager is often the main character of young adult fiction, but what makes Viet particularly interesting is that he challenges a system that borders on genocide. Communist tanks advance through Viet s Saigon neighborhood when he is fourteen years old, and overtake the Presidential Palace as American helicopters retreat over the South China Sea. During the frantic evacuation, the American Embassy isn t able to destroy secret files containing the names of South Vietnamese intelligence officers. Viet s father is one of these officers. Within days, the city is infiltrated by communist soldiers who take over public buildings and spies who move into local neighborhoods. To survive, his family must keep a low profile. Viet s life was better during the war. With the Americans gone, he has little hope for freedom and must watch his every step. But his rebellious spirit gets the upper hand and he is arrested in the black market, becoming one of more than a million people in labor camps spread across the jungles of Vietnam. Viet s captors have a dream. When everyone on earth is under their control, they believe, we will have reached Communist Heaven. Many of the prisoners are ex-soldiers. Others are religious leaders, academics and anyone who might provide leadership against the new regime. Tens of thousands of these prisoners die of starvation, malaria and physical beatings. Viet is determined not to be one of them. He uses the same daring that led to his arrest to create a chance to break free. Based on the true story of Viet Nguyen, this novel is about a teenager who makes some mistakes and faces the consequences. To know freedom, he must not only escape from prison, but also from his country."

The experiences and attitudes of a man who lived under Chinese Communism, rising to a position of importance before his decision to flee to the West, whose story describes much of life and society under Maoism. Robert Loh is the first educated Chinese to give a view from the inside of life in Red China. Son of a well-to-do family who was sent to study political science in the United States during the period when the authority of the Nationalist Government was disintegrating, Loh chose to return to Shanghai to contribute what he could toward reshaping China into a major world power. Robert Loh is at pains to make clear that he could not have survived, and indeed lived a relatively privileged life in communist China without giving in to much that he hated and despised.

This international bestseller plumbs recently opened archives in the former Soviet bloc to reveal the accomplishments of communism around the world. The book is the first attempt to catalogue and analyse the crimes of communism over 70 years.

Engineering Communism is the fascinating story of Joel Barr and Alfred Sarant, dedicated Communists and members of the Rosenberg spy ring, who stole information from the United States during World War II that proved crucial to building the first advanced weapons systems in the USSR. On the brink of arrest, they escaped with KGB’s help and eluded American intelligence for decades. Drawing on extensive interviews with Barr and new archival evidence, Steve Usdin explains why Barr and Sarant became spies, how they obtained military secrets, and how FBI blunders led to their escape. He chronicles their pioneering role in the Soviet computer industry, including their success in convincing Nikita Khrushchev to build a secret Silicon Valley. The book is rich with details of Barr’s and Sarant’s intriguing andexciting personal lives, their families, as well as their integration into Russian society. Engineering Communism follows the two spies through Sarant’s death and Barr’s unbelievable return to the United States.

Radu Olimpiu Gherghel was born in the city of Timisoara, Romania, in 1943 during a difficult time in his native countrys history. Once a free and sovereign nation, Romania then found itself in the grips of a foe far stronger, more able to destroy the country of his birthCommunism. As the social, economic, political, and governmental structures of Eastern European countries encountered whirlwind changes, free sovereign states were dominated and forced into the Soviet Bloc of nations. During this time, in the summer of 1955, a twelve-year-old boy sat on the stone wall at the entrance to a park in downtown Timisoara, Romania. He glanced up at the clear, blue sky watching the birds flying into the beautiful skies and knowing that he was witnessing a freedom few creatures in this world could ever experiencelet alone a child from Communist Romania. How he yearned to be free to go where he wanted, to be what he wanted, to fly like the birds, and to be free. His dreams and hopes take hold of his imagination; his adventures are real, his experiences unforgettable, and his story true as his quest for freedom begins. Dead Run is the inspiring story of a child who knew the difference between being controlled and being truly free.